Top EU diplomat: Israel has right to self-defense but current actions disproportionate

PA Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa (L) shakes hands with EU High Representative and Vice-President for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas (R) ahead of a European Union Foreign Affairs Council meeting at the European Convention Center Luxembourg (ECCL) in Luxembourg City, on April 14, 2025. (JOHN THYS / AFP)

Israel has the right to defend itself, but its current actions go beyond proportionate self-defense, Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, told reporters Monday.

Earlier, Kallas said Europe was stepping up its support for the Palestinians, with a plan to provide €1.6 billion ($1.8 billion) until 2027 to “help stabilize the West Bank and Gaza.”

The fresh aid pledge came just ahead of a meeting between Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa and EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

“The EU will invest in essential infrastructure while delivering humanitarian aid and support for refugees,” she said on X.

The EU is looking to boost the PA, as Israel has resumed its war against Hamas in Gaza after a ceasefire-hostage release deal largely put a halt to the fighting for two months.

Brussels — the biggest international donor to the Palestinians — said the package would include 620 million euros in grants for the PA.

The funds will be linked to reforms on “fiscal sustainability, democratic governance, private sector development, and public infrastructure and services,” the EU said.

A further 400 million euros in loans would come from the bloc’s lending arm, the European Investment Bank.

The EU’s new package follows on from the previous three-year support plan worth 1.36 billion euros from 2021 to 2024.

Macron urges PA reform

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron urged “reform” of the PA as part of a plan for the West Bank-based body to govern a postwar Gaza without the Hamas terror group, which Israel has sworn to eliminate after its October 7, 2023, onslaught.

France is among European nations to have backed a plan for Gaza to return to the control of the Ramallah-based authority after nearly two decades of Hamas rule if a ceasefire deal is reached to end the war with Israel.

Macron called his PA counterpart Mahmoud Abbas on Monday, after last week announcing France could take the unprecedented step of recognizing a Palestinian state in the coming months, sparking ire from Israel.

“It is essential to set a framework for the day after: disarm and sideline Hamas, define credible governance and reform the Palestinian Authority,” he said.

“This should allow progress towards a two-state political solution, with a view to the peace conference in June, in the service of peace and security for all.”

Macron said France could recognize a Palestinian state during a United Nations conference in New York in June.

The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that Abbas and Macron had “emphasized the urgent need for a ceasefire, the acceleration of humanitarian aid delivery, the rejection of the displacement of the Palestinian people from their land.”

France has thrown its support behind a plan put forward by Arab nations, including Jordan, to rebuild Gaza without evicting its 2.4 million Palestinian residents.

The Arab League-endorsed plan was put forward to counter a US proposal to send the war-ravaged territory’s inhabitants elsewhere.

Hamas has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007 when it violently seized control from the PA.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government have ruled out the PA’s return to Gaza, accusing it of supporting terrorism.

Paris has long championed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which would see both a Palestinian and Israeli state live peacefully side by side.

But the formal recognition of a Palestinian state would mark a major policy switch and risk antagonizing Israel, which insists such moves by foreign states are premature.

Macron’s remarks last week sparked a wave of criticism from right-wing groups in France and from Netanyahu and his son Yair Netanyahu.

“Screw you!” Yair Netanyahu wrote in English on X late on Saturday, while the premier himself dismissed Macron’s remarks.

War was sparked on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 50,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.